The Bulldogs opened up Saturday night's game with a 13-0 lead, knocking down six 3-pointers in the first quarter in taking a 29-4 lead as they would go on to beat Du Quoin 90-43 at Davenport Gymnasium.

Which prompted Tyler Smithpeters to point out: "Tonight, it seemed like we couldn't miss anything. We'll have a night where it will seem like we can't hit anything. Tonight was just our night."

From an offensive standpoint, Harrisburg had similar success Friday night in a 72-46 win on the road at Massac County.

The Bulldogs tied the school's best start over the weekend at 9-0, tying the 1997-98 team. More so, Harrisburg is also 2-0 in the Southern Illinois River-to-River Ohio Division as they prepare for Friday night's showdown at Davenport against Herrin.

"We realize the talent we have on the team and we try to come out and play with class," Harrisburg head coach Randy Smithpeters said. "We put our best offensive and defensive game on the floor and just play with class every night. I think that's our job to use the talent and the skills we have, every night to be as good as we can be."

In Saturday's win over Du Quoin, Capel Henshaw led the Bulldogs in scoring with 21 points including 13 in the first quarter alone as he drained three 3-pointers.

Tyler Smithpeters scored 16, while Eli Taborn Scott tacked on 11 and Gabe Oglesby came off the bench for 10 points.

It was a night when Harrisburg cleared its bench as Smithpeters brought out his starters with 4:00 to play in the third quarter.

"We shot well and that opens up a lot of things," Smithpeters said. "It puts points on the board, but it also spreads the floor and opens up a lot of things for a lot of people.

"The thing I am the most proud of is on the defensive end. It's what we really focus on and I'm happy that things went so well on the offensive end, but on the defensive end we've really been shutting people down.

I thought we defended better Saturday night than we did Friday night with the technique we used to do that."

Ryne Roper netted nine points, all coming from beyond the arc, while 'Snowy' Bjornsson and Jake Simerly each scored six points. Dakota Upchurch finished with five points, while Justin Younger flipped in four points and Carson Batts scored two.

Page 2 of 2 - In the win over Massac County Friday night, Smithpeters led all scorers with 25 points, while Henshaw tacked on 15 and Taborn-Scott scored 13 to finish in double figures.

Roper had six, all of which came in the first half, while Upchurch finished with four points., as did Oglesby.

Caleb Bartok tacked on three points and Bahari Amaya had two points.

It was a shaky start for Harrisburg Friday in Metropolis, as they struggled to get out to a 15-11 first quarter lead. But as the Bulldogs settled in, they were able to outscore the Patriots 22-16 in the second quarter and pulled away with a 24-14 third quarter to take a 61-41 lead.

"Massac County came and played zone (defense), which we expected them to do," Smithpeters said. They've done a lot of that this year. It's not something we've seen a lot of this year, but we were prepared and we felt our way through it. We missed some shots that we might normally make, but I think as the game went one we became a little more comfortable with other things, allowing us to create shots, either on the floor or around the basket."

Smithpeters added how nice it was to see Harrisburg hit their stride in the third quarter, with what the head coach called a "blitz" style of play.

"We're up 10 at halftime and that was kind of our goal, was to come out with a blitz and we played good defense. We played good offense and had a nice 9-0 run, that I'm not going to say, put the game away because that's one thing about this Massac County team. They have played a lot of games from behind and fought back. They don't quit.

"I want to see us continually get better and I think we did that this weekend."